Ty Dilello
The Niverville Nighthawks came down to earth on Saturday night with a deflating 6–0 loss on the road to the Dauphin Kings. With the win, the Nighthawks stay in fourth place in the MJHL’s East Division with a record of 22–15–2.
Dauphin scored early and scored often throughout the night, as only five minutes into the game it was already 2–0 for the Kings. Dauphin added another goal later in the period, and another in the second period.
Dauphin scored twice more in the final period to send the Nighthawks packing with a 6-0 win.
Raiden LeGall and Keegan Gordon stopped a combined 39 shots in the Nighthawks’ goal in the loss.
“It was a dreadful performance on our part. We couldn’t make a pass, the defencemen couldn’t skate backwards, and we couldn’t finish a check,” said Nighthawks head coach Kelvin Cech. “So we were very sloppy, and they made us pay early and often.”
This weekend’s games marked the final time this regular season that the Nighthawks made their way up to western Manitoba. It was their longest road trip against the likes of Swan Valley, Dauphin, and OCN.
“The travel in our league is really easy compared to other provinces, so we’re fortunate,” said Cech. “But every time you can go on the road for a night or two and stay in a hotel, there’s fewer distractions, and we can just focus on hockey. We’ve got great character on this team, as everyone is happy to hang out with one another, and it shows up in our results once we hit the ice.”
The Nighthawks are back in action on Wednesday night with a home game against the Steinbach Pistons. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m.
“We’re going to scrap this one and try not to ever talk about it again. And we’ll come back on Monday to practice with some good vibes and get ready to go for Steinbach.”